(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a user authentication technology based on ID information read from a contactless communication terminal.
(2) Description of Related Art
There has been known a user authentication technology with use of contactless communication terminals compliant with the proximity radio frequency identification (RFID) standard such as ISO/IEC 14443 Type A, ISO/IEC 14443 Type B, and Felica. Hereinafter, the proximity RFID standard is referred to collectively as the IC card standard, and contactless communication terminals compliant with the IC card standard are referred to as IC cards. Such a user authentication technology often uses ID information of IC cards for association with users.
For example, IC cards compliant with ISO/IEC 14443 Type A have ID information called UID, and IC cards compliant with Felica have ID information called IDm. When a user holds such an IC card over a card reader, the card reader reads ID information from the IC card, and thus to use the ID information of the IC card for user authentication.
Recently, there has become increasingly widespread mobile terminals that are utilizable as proximity contactless communication terminals and mount therein a near field communication (NFC) controller compliant with ISO/IEC 18092 and ISO/IEC 21481 (hereinafter, referred to as the NFC standard). Hereinafter, such mobile terminals are referred to as NFC terminals. The NFC standard is forward compatible with ISO/IEC 14443 Type A and Felica. When being in the card emulation mode in which ID information is readable from an NFC terminal by a card reader similarly to IC cards, the NFC terminal is used for user authentication similarly to IC cards.
Also, some NFC terminals implement the host-based card emulation (HCE) function. According to the HCE function, there is no need for hardware-based secure elements dedicated for the card emulation mode, and an NFC application executed by a CPU of an NFC terminal emulates an IC card. The card emulation mode by the HCE function is easily implemented in this way, and accordingly is expected to be used extensively.